Primary school students playing outside their school in Oddar Meanchey province discovered an exposed landmine in the school yard on Wednesday.

Students at Hun Sen Anlong Veng Primary School found the mine poking out of the ground “like a custard apple” while they were playing near a tree in front of their school and reported it to their teachers, according to the principal.

School officials called authorities to come remove the mine.

“We surrounded more than two metres around the mine compound and did not allow students to go through. We do not know whether there are some more mines in the school compound until CMAC [Cambodian Mine Action Centre] comes and checks it,” said Sou Nov, a deputy police chief of Anlong Veng district.

What the students stumbled upon was the core of a mine made in the US, according to Nov.

“My staff went to demine it, but it was only a shell without ammunition, which could not explode,” said Leng Saren, an executive director at Halo Trust.